The 10 Greatest Adventure Biographies

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Book Smackdown: Adventure Bios

Tell us your choice for the best adventure biography of all time in our book smackdown.

The Wildest Dream: The Biography of George Mallory, by Peter & Leni Gillman (2000)No. 10George Mallory was so much more than bleached bones and a brief entry in Bartlett's ("Because it is there"). Handsome and charismatic, he romped around Cambridge with the chic Bloomsbury set before finding his life's calling on rope in the Alpsand his early end on Everest in 1924. The Gillmans boldly go where few Mallory biographers dare tread, including into the sensitive issue of a rumored early homosexual experience, the authenticity of the Quotehe likely said something more like "Because we are mountaineers"and odd examples of his adventurous spirit. For instance, he enjoyed fording Himalayan rivers in the nude.